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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23032429">us and them (after all we're only ordinary men)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dankobah/pseuds/dankobah'>dankobah</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(and eventually fall in love), (but you didn't hear that from me), F/M, an xfiles au, ben is scully, rey is mulder, they get into shenanigans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:34:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,463</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23032429</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dankobah/pseuds/dankobah</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben shakes his head and turns to her, taking his eyes away from the cosmos above. Sure, they’re infinite but they have to be the only life here. It’s the only logical explanation. “You don’t have to downplay your grief to me.”</p><p>She looks away from the stars as well and he continues, “We’re partners. I have your back.” “Do you promise?”</p><p>If the cosmos could divine things, could whisk things into existence, did they bring Rey into his life? She’s a little piece of sharp stardust that burns bright enough to blind.</p><p>“I promise.” </p><p>
  <b>or</b>
</p><p>
  <b>an X-Files AU</b>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Reylo Charity Anthology: Volume 2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>us and them (after all we're only ordinary men)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>tags<br/>Crime scene reference<br/>Minor character death<br/>Extra-terrerestrial and paranormal</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sometimes she can still hear them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It breaks Rey into little pieces when she realizes such a thing is a fluke, that she can’t actually hear the voices of the probably dead.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though if anyone knew what had happened that night, how a bright flash of light took her parents from outside their RV, how Rey was found wandering the desert three days later, with scratches all down her back and in a severely dehydrated daze.  She had almost died.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They would understand her undying obsession to explain the unexplained to her friends, who call her a kook for getting into a bar fight about UFO sightings in college.  The topic has always been a hot one with her, and if anyone knew her job, they’d get why.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She hikes her bag up to her shoulder as she walks into the J Edgar Hoover building, shucking it into an X-ray bin and flashing her badge and ID at the security guard.  He nods and waves her through the metal detector, her heels clicking as she steps through. Then she retrieves her things and walks to the elevator.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The secretary avoids eye contact with her, as usual.  Rey has found that people never really warm up to you at the FBI.  They just act like they tolerate you and talk major smack behind your back or try to undercut you if you go for a promotion.  It’s a dog eat dog world, and Rey wants to be the biggest dog.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At only 26 years old, her position in the X-Files division of the FBI is quite extraordinary; barring the fact that no one else wanted to do it.  It’s a wonder she even has a partner.,The elevator doors open and she steps in, pressing the basement level. Their offices are near the boiler rooms, making them unbearably stuffy and hot.  Not to mention she doesn’t even have her own office, forced to share with her partner instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey taps her heeled foot on the tiled floor and waits for the elevator to hit the bottom floor.  Then it opens to a hallway encased in concrete and only a few doors on one side. She walks out and down the hall, reaching a door with a frosted glass window.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey knocks three times so she doesn’t shock Ben when coming in.  She opens the door then, and sure enough, he’s staring straight at her.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ben Solo, for all intents and purposes, is as big as a house.  He wears glasses because he can’t read in lowlight, he takes his eggs scrambled, and Rey is very sure he could bench her while telling her all about the muscles of the stomach.  He’s a doctor with little care for things that go bump in the night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s the type with a shell that’s especially hard to crack, and if you can’t, well, that’s unfortunate for you.   Rey likes to think she’s close to cracking down to the flesh, but she knows there’s only more clinical armor beneath.  “Cup of coffee on your desk.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiles to herself, “Thanks.”  It’s the little acts of service with him that make her glad she’s his partner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was making coffee anyway so…”  And the way he acts begrudgingly about it makes her happy as well.  Ben stands up at his too-small desk and Rey walks to her own, immediately stripping off her navy blue blazer and clipping her identification to the white sleeveless blouse she wears beneath.  It’s too hot in the basement, evident in how she can see his muscled forearms under his white dress shirt. Somehow he wears white as a doctor and manages to keep it clean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Had a body come by this morning.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey sips her coffee, “So you were here early?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” quick to dismiss her question. “The wounds on the body were concurrent with what I believe to be an animal attack, though the park rangers who found it insist to our agents that this doesn’t look like any animal they’ve seen before.  This body’s skull is pulverized.” Ben sips his coffee then, and gore doesn’t bug either of them, it’s a part of the job as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s missing the point as to why this is now on the X-Files desk, and he continues graciously, “So we’re headed for the Pine Barrens in New Jersey.  Mainly to check out where the body was found.” She’s removing the file off his desk and opening it up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She reads the words on top of the page: </span>
  <b>Jersey Devil.</b>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought it was a crock of shit too-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Jersey Devil?  We don’t know that for sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one’s ever seen one before in the history of evolutionary science and I trust science rather than what some banjo plucking kook in the fucking woods thinks.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey rolls her eyes, used to his skepticism.  Then he sighs, “I figured we could get started on driving today and head straight for the case.”  His want to get started is unusual, given that he usually drags his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She asks, “What’s with the sudden vigor?”  Ben is getting up and grabbing his grey blazer off the chair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then he speaks, “Because I want a park ranger to tell me to my face that it isn’t some unfortunate animal attack.  These people are just spooked over nothing and I would personally love to see that psychological phenomenon play out once again before my eyes.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She opens up the file to ignore him and begins to read about the Jersey Devil, eyes scanning the page.  “Flying biped with hooves, with a goat or a horse head.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ben is packing his briefcase, “Sounds like a good time.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She continues, “It has tiny arms as well based on this sketch.”  She squints at the rudimentary sketch as she picks up her blazer and bag again, walking out of the X-files office with him.  They walk to the elevator and he presses the button to go up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Emits a high pitched screech noise.”  They both step into the elevator and Ben presses the button for her so they can go see Dameron to get official case probe approval.  Just because something comes across their desk, doesn’t mean it’s approved.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds absolutely horrifying.  I wish it was real.” Rey rolls her eyes for the umpteenth time.  Their days are basically them keeping a running count of how many times they can roll their eyes at each other.  He usually wins, but the skepticism of each other and their work keeps it fresh and exciting and always challenging.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And just because Ben doesn’t believe in something doesn’t mean he doesn’t do everything in his power to prove it to be true.  Including seeking out cases like these, ones with likely logical explanations but something to run away with still.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They arrive on the floor of the living and she shuts the folder, walking down the hall side by side.  Ben opens the door for her to enter the waiting room of the office of Dameron, Kaydel Connix at the secretary desk and typing away on an IBM computer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She recognizes them with a warm smile, the first one Rey’s gotten all day.  “Dameron is available, just knock first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ben nods and walks towards the door to his office, knocking three times before pressing his ear to it.  Rey holds the file to her chest before Ben opens up the door, gesturing for her to go first. She does as she’s told and breathes deeply as Poe looks up from another case file.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey tosses the Jersey Devil case file on the desk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We would like approval to investigate with the manpower of the sheriff’s office in the Pine Barrows.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Poe opens up the file and Rey sits down across the desk.  Ben keeps standing and watches Poe read. “Does this have anything to do with the hiker body we got this morning?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ben nods now, “A park ranger, real kooky type apparently, mentioned the legend.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think it would be a lovely cryptid to potentially find.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this going to be like the bigfoot case, Rey?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That gives her pause.  They don’t talk about the bigfoot case for a lot of reasons, mainly due to the panic attack she had out in the woods with her last partner, that freaked them out so much that they called it off.  They transferred after that and she got Ben, which she really can’t be mad about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ben is a great partner, and they’ve gotten to the point where she can sometimes finish what he’s thinking inside that big medical doctor brain of his.  “This does require the woods and I’m prepared for that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Poe sits back in his chair, “I’m giving you the budget for one night in the woods.  You may check out anything you need from the FBI supply.” Poe shuts the file and stamps it with his approval.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey practically beams, “You won’t regret this, sir.”  Ben still stands, deep in thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I better not.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Ben keeps his work and his home life very separate, all things considered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He lives alone, he doesn’t have a girlfriend or a dog, and he can be as hermity as he needs to be to get shit done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That is, until Rey.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he was assigned to the X-Files, he considered quitting.  He knew he could get a job at a hospital easily, but it wouldn’t make nearly the amount he’s making currently.  Not to mention the raise he got when joining Rey.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Poe had called her a loose cannon.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“She told me she thinks her parents were abducted by aliens, but she passes every psychological test we’ve got.  She’s a smart profiler, top of her class and mentored by Luke Skywalker.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The name had given him pause and he had considered just laughing off the proposal right then.  But he paused, considered what else he could do, and accepted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s cooking dinner when his doorbell buzzes.  He owns a townhome in the thick of DC, near the Hoover building.  Wiping his hands off on the towel, he runs downstairs and opens up the front door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey stands there in jeans and a tee, hair pulled back into three buns like they always are at work.  He likes the whimsy she brings with her hairstyles, and he wants to ask why she’s always so creative with her hair.  He barely resists asking, </span>
  <em>
    <span>“What are you doing here?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey holds up a bag of Chinese takeout as if to answer his unsaid query.  “I figured we could make a list of what we need for camping.” She walks past him and up the stairs as if she lives here.  Hell, she’s slept on the couch on some nights, given he can’t resist her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We couldn’t do this over the phone?”  He follows her up the stairs and runs to the kitchen to turn off the burner holding the frying pan with chicken sizzling inside.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> we do it over the phone?”  She sits down on the couch, turning on the television with the remote.  The news plays but she mutes it, opening up the takeout bag to take out containers.  Ben walks over and plops down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Holding out a container, “Cashew chicken?”  He nods and takes it, along with a container of rice.  He begins to eat like a hungry dog, starving from having to wake up at four for the case this morning.  Rey stretches out on the couch, putting her socked feet next to his slacks covered thighs.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, we’re going to need a tent,” she starts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Two tents.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One tent.”  She writes it on a notepad on the coffee table and he rolls his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rations for one night.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He interjects, “Generator.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good thinking, we’ll need lights too.  The large ones from the forensics lab, preferably.”  He nods and eats more, watching the television as something about an FBI siege in Waco, Texas.  He couldn’t care less, and he sets the chicken on the coffee table and takes a couple of bites of rice.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can we go on your roof?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He asks, “My roof?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rey nods, gesturing to the blanket on the back of the couch.  His mother had put it there as an attempt at decorating and he appreciates it at this moment. It’s not like he would have gone and purchased a throw blanket himself.  “I was thinking we take the food up there and this blanket and maybe talk? It’s a nice night.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She does make a fair point and he gets up from the couch, Rey following him while throwing the blanket over her shoulder.  He gathers up the food and they head up the stairs, Rey leading the way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He tries very hard, as always, not to stare at her ass as she walks.  She’s his partner, not a piece of meat.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They make it to the roof and Ben doesn’t pay any attention to this part of his house, so there’s no furniture.  She doesn’t seem to mind, wrapping up in the blanket as she lays her head against the brick half-wall that lines his roof.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ben slumps next to her, looking at the stars as he begins to eat again.  Though something has been gnawing at him all day, ever since Poe said it.  With a full mouth, “What happened on the Bigfoot case?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sighs deeply, shutting her eyes.  He thinks he’s made a mistake until she speaks, “I had a really bad panic attack in the woods.  I thought I was going to die so my partner at the time, Hux, called off the stakeout.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why did you panic?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She bites her lip and hugs herself underneath the blanket wrapped around her.  “My uh...my parents got abducted by aliens when we were camping in the desert. I guess it’s just the act of camping that got me in a tizzy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How old were you?”  Ben doesn’t believe in aliens or anything extra-terrestrial.  When science proves it, he will.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Six.  It’s been twenty years this year.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He offers, “Fuck.  I’m sorry they’re gone, Rey.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shakes her head to herself and looks over at him.  “I’ve gotten over it, it’s okay.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ben shakes his head and turns to her, taking his eyes away from the cosmos above.  Sure, they’re infinite but they have to be the only life here. It’s the only logical explanation.  “You don’t have to downplay your grief to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looks away from the stars as well and he continues, “We’re partners.  I have your back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you promise?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If the cosmos could divine things, could whisk things into existence, did they bring Rey into his life?  She’s a little piece of sharp stardust that burns bright enough to blind.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>“I promise.”</b>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>excited to unveil this ride.  thoughts and feelings welcome at <a href="https://twitter.com/dankobah">twitter</a></p><p>work title is inspired by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6qnMB7pOKA">"us and them" by pik floyd</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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